Yorkshire endured the grimmest of midsummer days at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday when a combination of a wet ground, blustery showers and bad light limited play to 10.4 overs in three sessions on the first day of their Championship match with Hampshire.

To make things even gloomier for Yorkshire they quickly lost acting captain Matthew Wood after winning the toss and closed on 34-1.

Torrential overnight rain took its toll and although gales swept the ground it was not dry enough to begin until 3.30pm.

Australian Phil Jaques scored a neat boundary off his legs against Tim Tremlett but in his second over the tall paceman got one to lift and move away from Wood, who edged to wicketkeeper Nic Pothas.

Chris Taylor, keen to impress on his return to first team action, was still awaiting his first run when the umpires brought the players off for bad light which was soon followed by further squalls of rain.

The light appeared no better when the game resumed with a possible 18 overs still remaining and in an attempt to keep play going, Hampshire soon resorted to an all-spin attack but after two overs apiece from Shaun Udal and Michael Clarke it became too dark to continue.

The slow bowlers did, however, give Jaques and Taylor the opportunity to pick up some easy runs as well as to take the shine off the new ball.

Surprisingly, play got going again with just three overs remaining but with the quick bowlers back only ten balls had been sent down when further bad light had the final say.

Although Headingley misses out on an Ashes Test match next summer, the ground was yesterday allocated two one-day internationals - against Bangladesh in the NatWest Series on June 26 and against Australia in the NatWest Series on July 7.

Updated: 10:39 Thursday, June 24, 2004